Elizabeth: So what does the job entail? What do you do?
Beth: So I was brought on board predominantly to flesh out and take the things that I had done previously with LSP and service2school. Think about how to create programs to help transitioning service members and veterans gain access to higher education. And so to try to do that on a much larger scale than what I was able to do within those two programs prior. And so really the first couple of years were around building out partnerships, relationships with folks that we could support. Part of what the center does is it tries to help other veteran service organizations enhance what they’re doing. So I was working a lot with some of my connections in the veteran space and trying to see what they were trying to do and how we could help. I mean, the way the center is constructed we’ve got folks on board that helped us through educational technology. So we’ve got Michael Sentimo who used to work for the Center for Teaching and Learning, who came over to help us from an educational technologist standpoint. And so trying to figure out what people need and how we might be able to help was one part of my job. The partnership piece. And then the other piece was really, as I mentioned, building out a program that could help somebody that was going through a transition that needed resources.
And so we have built now three courses, University Studies for Student Veterans, Find Your Calling, and then the course I was responsible for to take lead on was attaining higher ed. And so that’s helping somebody understand the process of applying to college, help them understand how to make an intentional decision about that. So you’ve built those under the platform, all of the sources that we have, the videos, everything can certainly be taken and utilized in other ways. And so somebody coming out of the military could go to the course and sign up. A little bit different than Find Your Calling and University Studies in that it does have what we call Tier 2 and Tier 3, meaning somebody goes through the course, they finish the course, they do everything that’s required. You know, the worksheets fill out the journal. Then we connect them to Tier 2, which is where they get connected to a peer coach. So a student veteran or somebody who’s graduated who can again, sort of help fine tune their application, help them think through and answer some of the questions they might have about transitioning and then Tier 3 is that connection to a professional advisor. So someone who is in the admissions space or in a veteran center at a particular campus. The goal of which is just to make sure that they have all their questions answered so that when they make a decision to apply or they’re making a decision, hopefully across multiple institutions of where they should go, that they’ve thought it through. Because I over the years with a lot of transitioning service members, I would hear the well, “I don’t really know what I want to do, but I’ve got this post 9/11 G.I. Bill. I think I will go to college and my buddy goes here. So I think I’ll go there, too.” I’m just trying to get them to think it through a little bit with more detail about why they want to go to college. And is it the right choice and is now the right time? So the point of the course is to take them through that process, starting with intentional decision making, giving them skills, not only the tools that they need to do the process, but also just have them pause a little bit about why they’re doing it and thinking that through. So that’s what I was responsible for. Building that program and helping design the curriculum. Like what are we going to talk and writing scripts and all of that.So that was a that was a big thing for a while there, but it’s launched and we’re now working on adding to it. You know, it inevitably happens. You build something, you launch it, and then you think, oh, maybe we should have done this. And so now we’re building in a graduate school module. What folks might want to think about in their undergraduate years if they’re thinking about going to graduate school. And then we’re also going to build some resources for those folks who already have their bachelor’s degree that may be thinking about going to graduate school.
Elizabeth: So when you were designing this curriculum, did you by any chance sit down with veterans and ask what their learning styles are.
Beth: We did it. In the course we have what we call veteran voices. So we talked to and interviewed veterans about their experience and their transition. A lot of the course was built based on my experience and what I felt over and over again. I was hearing from students, while transitioning, as to what they needed. I was a headhunter for the university. I was basically Match.com. I tried to make a good match for these folks. And that’s kind of the role that I had. So that was what I was trying to do and thinking through what are the things that I would want them to know more and told them over the years. If I could tell them everything that I wish they would know, as they go through this process, what would that be? And sort of built it from there. And again, I think a lot of the pieces are things that exist out there. There are other folks that can help you think through how to write your college essay. There are tools out there that exist. But wanting to combine those tools also with things like intentional decision making and then also combine it with having them hear from other veterans, I just thought was a neat way to do it. And again, to put it in a platform by which they could take it and go through it, A to Z where they could pop into the course. If they’re currently writing their essay, you know, they can jump into the course and look at the video just on writing their essay and hear from veterans who had challenges as they were writing theirs. So it’s a comprehensive course, but also one that can be utilized in a variety of different ways and also be provided as a tool for higher ed administrators and other veteran service organizations. So if they have veterans that are looking to go into higher ed, to be a resource for them, and that’s kind of what we’ve done with all of our programs, we’ve got them in a way so that people can take what they need and leave the rest behind. It’s kind of like a library where they can utilize it as they need it when they need it.
Elizabeth: That’s very impressive. I have to ask every veteran, every person is different. Did you ever encounter a situation where a veteran is in the program, he was using the program, but just something happened and they couldn’t finish their education and/ or just couldn’t continue with it. Did you ever encounter somebody that came to college and then couldn’t finish or dropped out or there were some complications?
Beth: I did. Over the years. I would say. And I’m now talking, you know, there’s probably hundreds of folks who participated in some of the programs I’ve been involved with. You know, I would say in general, though, the ones that I was tracking when I worked for LSP, there were only a couple that I don’t know now if they if they have since completed their degree, they may have, but I’m no longer tracking them. But, you know, at the time they had to stop out and it was always a couple, meaning one or two that were struggling academically and then a couple of others who went through personal situations, divorce and things like that, moved to a different state, you know, something like that. But the majority once they were admitted went through the entire process and have since graduated and are now getting graduate degrees or are in the workforce. So I’ve seen many more success stories than not.
